bridging language and well-being: exploring the potentials of integrating positive psychology content into english language teaching

Positive language education (ple) has emerged as a significant area of focus within foreign language education, emphasizing the incorporation of well-being and positive psychological principles into the language learning process to foster a more holistic and supportive educational environment. despite the growing scholarly interest in this approach, the application of positive psychology (pp) themes within language curricula, particularly in non-western educational contexts, remains underexplored. in this qualitative study, the researchers explored the potential benefits of embedding pp content within a general english course. drawing on established well-being themes from the literature—such as gratitude, resilience, emotion regulation, altruism, creativity, and life’s meaning—the researchers designed and implemented a series of activities and materials incorporating multimodal resources, including texts, audio recordings, and video clips across diverse genres (e.g., fiction and non-fiction). the study was conducted with a cohort of 85 iranian female undergraduate students enrolled  in a general english course at a state university in tehran., iran data were collected over the course of a semester through a combination of methods: classroom observations, analysis of student-generated materials, and in-depth semi-structured interviews with a selected number of participants. thematic analysis of the collected data revealed that the integration of well-being themes and activities fostered the development of both linguistic and non-linguistic competencies, including enhanced positive self-expression, introspective self-reflection, well-being literacy, and the cultivation of a foreign language growth mindset. the findings highlight the multidimensional benefits of integrating pp principles into foreign language education.